The medial circumflex femoral artery is an artery of the thigh region. It is a branch of the deep femoral artery.
It contributes to the blood supply of the hip joint and medial compartment of the thigh.
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The medial circumflex femoral artery is the first branch of the deep femoral artery (profunda femoris).
After its origin, the medial circumflex femoral artery travels posteriorly and laterally to pass between the pectineus muscle and tendon of the iliopsoas.
It then winds around the posteromedial aspect of the femoral neck. When it reaches the superior border of the adductor magnus, the medial circumflex femoral artery divides into two branches:
- Ascending branch – passes across the tendon of the obturator externus muscle and anastomoses with branches of the inferior gluteal artery and lateral circumflex femoral artery (forming the trochanteric anastomosis).
- Descending branch – passes between the quadratus femoris and adductor magnus, before dividing into its three terminal branches: superficial, deep and acetabular.
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The medial circumflex femoral artery supplies the following structures:
- Femoral neck, head, and hip joint (it is the dominant supply to the hip joint – damage to this artery can result in avascular necrosis of the femoral head)
- Adductor muscles
- Gracilis muscle
- Pectineus muscle
- External obturator muscle
- Sciatic nerve